Two arrested in Plattsburgh fentanyl bust

Two people are in police custody after a traffic stop in Plattsburgh on Wednesday, March 29 led to the seizure of 170 bags of fentanyl.

PLATTSBURGH — Two people are in police custody after a traffic stop on Wednesday led to the seizure of 170 bags of fentanyl.

Michael Malseptic, of Plattsburgh, and Kaleigh Filion, of West Chazy, were each charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance, third degree, a class B felony, after their vehicle was pulled over on Prospect Avenue.

The street value of the drugs is estimated at $18,000, said the Plattsburgh City Police Department, who announced the arrests on Thursday.

The arrest, said authorities, was the result of an ongoing investigation into narcotics trafficking and distribution.

Both suspects appeared before the Hon. Mark Rogers in Plattsburgh City Court.

Filion, 27, was committed to the Clinton County Jail under $15,000 cash bail or $75,000 bond.

Fentanyl has traditionally been used as a powerful pain medication, and one often used for end-of-life patients.

The drug is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, and 30 to 50 times more potent than heroin, said city police, who cautioned the community that the powerful derivative is making its way into the region.

Fentanyl is potentially lethal, even at very low levels, and is usually used to cut heroin.

Ingestion of even small doses ― as small as 0.25 mg ― can be fatal, authorities said, and Its euphoric effects are indistinguishable from those of morphine or heroin.

Mayor Colin Read said never before has such concentrated drugs been confiscated in the city.

“I thank our city police for their live-saving work,” Read said in a statement. “There is an extremely high risk of overdose death when fentanyl is packaged in such a high concentration. Their police work likely saved lives.”

The Plattsburgh Police Department was joined by the New York State Police and the Adirondack DEA Task Force in the investigation.

The raid joins several additional high-profile arrests this month, including raids in Ticonderoga and Plattsburgh.

The Plattsburgh Police Department and Clinton County District Attorney’s Office have asked the public to keep them appraised of any information that can help them in their investigations.